I mastered the MTR and Mong Kok (I'm prepared for anything now)

If Mong Kok doesn't ring a bell, get out your Guinness Book of World Records. Mong Kok has 340,000 inhabitants per square mile and is supposed to be the busiest district in the world.  And do take into consideration that in today's downpour every person who had an umbrella increased their personal effective radius by a factor of 2.  After today's rain I also understand why so many Hong Kong citizens carry umbrellas in non-inclement weather ;-)


But to get there I first had to master the Hong Kong Metro or Mass Transit Railway (MTR) as it is properly called.  Its symbol is an octopus because of ~8 different lines, me thinks. The real problem is that to this Western ear most of the stops sound the same.

What is worse, the lines are distinguished by their end stops, which also indicate the direction that the train travels in. With all the other names floating around, I am not surprised I have to look at the bloody map every time I take a train, because I just can't keep Wan Chai and Chai Wan apart!
And the same bloody line also has the stops Sai Wan, Cheung Wan, and Shau Wan. Oh. PLEASE!

Actually, I shouldn't complain; all the station names could be written in Chinese ;-)  At least the different lines are colour-coded and the system is organized in a very logical fashion, so once you figure out how it works, it's pretty simple to use.

 The trains are REALLY long, come at least every 3 minutes and can fill up within one stop, as happened here!

And then the MTR spits you right into the middle of this:

 Now imagine 340,000 people per square mile and no public washrooms in evidence ;-)  Helpful (Can you spell Schadenfreude?) bank security guards pointed out that McDonald's has a washroom (By the way: Washroom seems to be an unknown word; try saying toilet), but if you came from the wrong direction, you'd only find this McDonald's by the relieved faces of people coming out of it. Personally, I think they are hiding their sign because their toilet facilities are at the point of not being able to handle the flow.





And I thought the regular Mong Kok streets were busy ;-)  These market streets are made worse by almost every merchant trying to make you stray from the straight line!















I bought octopus on a stick from a street vendor. For  less than 2 $CAN this is a steal.
The one dipped in Chili sauce that is being BBQ-ed is mine. Truly delicious!







 
Me and my fabulous 3 new shirts took the MTR back home, typed all this up, are postponing posting the gourgeous pictures of today's 4 Star Ferry trips until later, and are catching some sleep now!